Anyway, while assembling the plastic Goblin Fanatics I was disappointed by the bland look of the straight chains their balls of whirling death are on. It doesn’t really match the fluff, so I thought I’d try heat bending the thermoplastic GW figures are molded from. Searching on the internet it seems people use all sorts of methods to reshape GW plastics. I didn’t fancy hair driers, heat guns or open flames so resorted to boiling water. Bringing a pot to the boil on the stove I held the Fanatics in for a minute using cooking chopsticks. The plastic chains became easily bendable so I put gentle curves into all of them, although I wonder if I shouldn’t have gone more extreme and tried for a spiral or u-bend?

It was so easy I wonder why I haven’t tried this years ago with other GW plastics. I discovered something else too - GW black plastic bases are made of an awful cheap and crappy thermoplastic. I made the mistake of leaving the round bases on the Fanatics while I was boiling them and the bases shrunk and warped considerably in the process. Oh well, I’ve got plenty of square bases to spare so just replaced them, since basing makes no difference as they move randomly with scatter dice.

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The custom movement tray is just a standard GW movement try that’s had some resin cast details from a Hirst Arts mold pinned to it and painted. It looks quite nice but frankly can be a bit of a hassle to place figures into as they tend to snag on the details. Looking at it again, I wonder if I shouldn’t brush a little dip on that bronze as well.

I’ve got a bunch more Zombies taking a stripping bath at the moment to remove some incomplete paint jobs, and I’ve got another handful to patch up and prime. In fact I’m considering salvaging my original Vampire Counts Border Patrol Force from 2004 and getting them finally finished using dip. To complete them wouldn’t take much effort once the Zombies are done. From memory I think I had a handful of metal Grave Guard to finish as well, and they can certainly go through the green dip. In fact I might try a little highlighting over the base coat prior to dipping, rather than the simple flat base colours I’ve been doing so far.

For reference here’s close-ups of the two extra ranks of five Zombies I’ve painted. You can see I’ve been experimenting with a variety of skin tones, from a lighter green to a lighter turqouise to a slightly over the top dark turqouise tone. Dip gives your figures quite a natural range of tones even if you base them with the same colour (thinned GW Camo Green in this case) but I thought I’d mix it up a little and see how it works. The blue skin tones came out fairly well, giving the figures a drowned or maybe frostbitten appearance. I wanted to experiment with some purple skin tones as well, but couldn’t find any purple paint in my collection - and frankly couldn’t be bothered mixing a custom tone for a couple of figures. Ah well, maybe a few in the next batch!

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I’ve ordered the following from them to bulk out my Orc’n'Gobbo force. I’ve put the GW NZ retail price in italics for comparsion:

$49.50 ($55) Night Goblins Regiment
$22.50 ($25) Night Goblin Fanatic Box
$49.50 ($55) Orc Warriors Regiment
$36.00 ($40) Orc Warboss
$67.50 ($75) Warhammer Giant
$225.00 ($250) Total

That’s a 10% discount on GW retail and free shipping. I’ll be using Imperial Games from now on for most of my hobby purchases, particuarly since they carry several other lines I’ve mentioned in the past and the Ziterdes range includes lots of useful terrain.

I also have no problem recommending them to any gamer based in New Zealand. It’s fantastic to finally have a professional, discount Games Workshop web-store based here in New Zealand.

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3. Dipping Orcs - Warhammer

I dusted off some of the fifty assembled but unpainted Zombies I made for my Vampire Counts force, base coated them and dipped them into the new, minty green dip. Here’s the first four, matt varnished and ready to shamble. I’m not entirely satisfied with the results though, they’re passable for a gaming paint job but I think they’re not as successful as the dipped Orcs.

The green dip works well over the Games Workshop Camo Green that was used as the basic flesh tone, but don’t think it works that well over the brown tones on the figures. This is unfortunate because it’s earthy tones I typically paint with, which is obviously if you look at the Orcs I’ve been dipping, or any of my Pulp figures from the past. Ah well, perhaps it’s time to expand my repertoire and the green dip certainly works over whites like Skull White primer, off-whites like Bleached Bone, Rotting Flesh and yellows and yellow-browns like Khommando Khaki and Bubonic Brown. I’m also very happy with the way it’s worked on the Boltgun Metal chest plate and suspect it’ll go quite nicely over Shining Gold as well.

So I think I’ll forge ahead regardless of my reservations. I’ve tidied up half of my 50 Zombies ready for base coating and dipping so I might as well keep painting. It’s been suggested that I try varying the skin tone a little and I do wonder how the green dip would go over light blue or even purple tinged flesh. I suspect you could probably end up with some quite delightfully fetid looking Zombies… (cue rolling thunder, lightning flash).

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Once again I have to thank Dustan for his invaluable tips regarding dipping, without them I wouldn’t have bothered trying dip. Experiments with dip continue in both our houses - I’m looking to mix a good green dip for Warhammer Zombies and 40k Plague Marines while he’s trying for a blue dip for 40k Eldar.

Here’s a close up of the last five Goblin Wolf Riders. I wasn’t quite so heavy handed with the matt varnish this time and their paint jobs look a little crisper on the table. Since this is a Border Patrol force, both Wolf Rider units lack Standards and Musicians. There’s little point giving these speed bump units Standards of course, but their poor Leadership would certainly benefit from Musicians, which may get added in the future.

Next I’ll look at expanding this force with the existing figures I already have - another Boar Chariot, 30 Orc Arrer boys (I’ll probably paint 20), about another 10 Orc boys in parts and then it’s time to spend some money! It’s been years since I’ve been into a Games Workshop store, and I’ll probably end up buying additional Regiment boxes from Vagabond in Auckland city.

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I decided to revamp my tired old painting table with a stepped shelf system designed for more comfortable painting and protection from my daughter Pagyn (almost 2 at the time of writing). I wasn’t alone on the mission as my boy Shaun lent a hand and was a wonderful help to keep things flush while I screwed them.

The materials were all scavenged from about the garage. I had a 1200×600mm sheet of 4.5mm MDF, the chipboard was about 200mm x 595mm at 20mm depth. The screws were the only part I needed to buy, about 85 screws all up at $0.10 a piece. The tools used were a jigsaw, skill saw, coping saw, a couple of clamps and a drill.

The table has been kicking arround with me for the longest time, it is an old TV table and I have been using it as a paint station for years. It’s a good size for hiding between furniture when not in use and the lower part of the table is where my current models, bitz and tools are stored.

I sketched up a diagram of roughly what I wanted it to look like, then after cutting the back and sides I drew the plans straight onto them. This first shot shows the table with the back and splash shields in place. I didn’t have any hole cutting drill bits so I used a coping saw to make the water jar hole. The cuts were made by clamping a guide rail onto the material to cut. The shelves are made from a system of screwed together steps with MDF tops and chipboard walls.

Here’s a shot of the fully stocked table so far. I am also over half way through building a breadbox style lid, made from old ventian blind slats, which will slide into the void above the top shelf.

So far construction has taken about six hours, and the design and measurements where largely made up on the fly. Painting at the table is nice as everything is available and arranged tidily, and the high sides limit Pagyn’s angles of attack which has made it much easier to get things done.

Very nice work Dustan. I admire both your scavenging and DIY abilities, and I particularly like the inclusion of a large storage area underneath the work surface. I’m also slightly jealous of your collection of GW paints. Most of mine have been used, or dried up and I’m left with the horrifying prospect of purchasing some more, at $7NZ locally for a single bottle! - Stu.

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The wolves were based, primed white and then quickly painted with a watered down Scorched Brown. Their ears, snouts and tongues were all lightened with a mix of Scorched Brown and Dwarf Flesh. The teeth were just left as white primer. The base and wolf was then dipped into an even darker mix of the already darkened Wattyl stain + varnish product I’m using. Painting the wolves with dip was so easy I painted ten of them to completion in two evenings. This means I’ve got five Goblins left to paint to complete the second small unit.

The Goblins themselves were just primed white, painted in base colours and then dipped into the same mix as the Orcs. They didn’t turn out quite as well as the Orcs in my opinion. I suspect it’s something to do with the figures being simpler, and much less textured that the larger plastic warriors. But once again the speed of getting them painted outweighs the slight loss of quality from dipping. I also went a little overboard on the varnish for these figures and they’re extremely matt, and the spray varnish is thick enough to obscure detail in places. I must remember a light dusting is all that’s required.

Once I’ve finished the five remaining riders I will have completed my 500pt Border Patrol force. Then I’ll look at pushing the Orc unit out to 30 figures, and assembling the second Orc Boar chariot I have. I also have 30 Orc Arrer Boyz that I may or may not use. Orc archers are pretty worthless in my limited experience so if I’m going to use these figures I’ll probably try some conversions - Aaron made the excellent suggestion of replacing their bows with spears for example.

To get the force to 1500 points I’m considering purchasing a Games Workshop Giant, a couple of regiment boxes (Night Goblins and Orc Warriors) and a box of Fanatics. To save some money I may also try scratch building a couple of Goblin Spear Chuckas from balsa and plasticard.

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I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the end result. In particular the wood effect is superb considering it’s just a coat of dip over a Graveyard Earth base. I used to get much the same effect by messing around with several layers of drybrushing and an ink wash. The boars also turned out well I think, considering they’re painted with only three colours prior to dipping.

The next task is to find a reasonable way to dip Goblin Wolf Riders. The challenge is I’d like the wolves to be quite a dark tone. I’m considering mixing a small amount of darker dip and using a lightened base coat of Scorched Brown. Even though I bought the smallest tin of stain available, and I’ve dipped 20 Orcs and this chariot I still have plenty left in the tin, so dipping is not only easy it’s also economical. The wolf riders will get the same treatment as the Orcs and once I’ve painted ten wolf riders I will have completed a 500pt Border Patrol force.

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The standard bearer in the front was partially tin dipped and partially brush dipped as I discovered my cheap tin of stain wasn’t quite as deep as I thought it was. It turns out that there are no problems brush painting dip on, which is not much of a surprise but still good to know.

I’ve also prepped an Orcish Boar Chariot for painting this week and while the Boars, Orcs and chariot wheels are all small enough to dip separately, the chariot body isn’t so it’ll be brush dipped. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to paint either since there’s not much to an Orcish chariot, just wood, metal and a few cloth tones to paint on before dipping. Once that’s complete I have ten Goblin Wolf Riders to paint to complete the 500pt force.

Although I doubt I’ll stop at 500 pts since I have another 30 Arrer Boyz I could assemble into two units and a second Boar Chariot as well which would get me up around 800 points.

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This first shot is just detail from the end of the rank. You can see I’ve finished the first rank completely, but the second rank are still noticeably shiny, particularly if you compare their raised weapons. As per my last post I’ve tried leaving several different areas on the figures primer white. Most obviously teeth - both in the mouths and worn as decoration - and horns, but also the windings around their feet and some of the pants and shoes. I’ve discovered that this technique really only works for teeth and horns, so for any future Orcs I’ll be painting an entire base coat over majority of the figure.

I’ve also discovered that dipping is fairly forgiving of poor painting, specially around deep undercuts and recesses. For example I’ve stopped bothering worrying about the hilts of weapons embedded in gnarly Orc fists. Many of the hilts are simply painted Goblin Green along with the rest of the hand because once they’re dipped the stain settles naturally in those deep recesses, hiding the sloppy paint work. The same is true around the necks of the Orcs where the deep seam makes it hard to apply paint properly once the head is glued on. Don’t bother! The dip will hide any patchy primer left behind.

Here’s the two ranks shot in autumn morning sunshine and I think they’re looking pretty good for a few evenings of work this week. You may notice the original test Orc, in centre front rank. He’s actually looking a bit dark now and I think I may have been a little generous with the amount of dip left on the figure. I’ve also based and primed another ten as well, so I’m set up to paint another two ranks this week.

Anyway it’s fair to say I’ve caught ‘dipping madness’ as I’ve also spent the weekend reviewing all the assembled, unpainted armies I possess both for Warhammer and 40k. I’ll keep dipping the Orcs to a 500 point Border Patrol force and then review them from there, but I’m also stripping a bunch of old 3rd edition 40k Tyranids and various Pulp giant insects I’ve partially painted. I want to experiment with a few Tyranids to come up with a passable speed painting scheme and dipping should be a good way just to knock the Pulp insects out.

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The ‘All in One Stain’ is a satin varnish that has been pre-mixed with an oil wood stain. ‘Dark Mahagony’ is the darkest product colour, and is a red-brown tone, very similar to Games Workshop’s Chestnut ink in the tin. I test dipped a primed Tyranid Spore Mine from my collection of unpainted miniatures and unsurprisingly found it a little red for my tastes. I typically mix GW’s Chestnut ink with a little India ink just to move it to an earthier tone, so thought I’d try the same with the stain. Mixing in a small amount of the ‘Charcoal’ oil stain into the tin darkened the tone to my tastes and I test dipped my first Orc.

Here’s the figure prior to dipping. The base was covered with a mix of kitty litter and model railway ballast, glued down with PVA. The whole figure was then white primed and a simple base coat of colours painted with Games Workshop paints in an evening.

Then holding the figure by the base with a pair of pliers it was test dipped into the well stirred tin. I let the excess dip drip back into the tin until I was satisfied with what was left on the figure. It was then given a few quick flicks into an old cardboard box to remove even more dip and then I let the figure settle for a few minutes before touching up various areas with an old modeling brush. The stain tended to collect pretty heavily into deep folds and undercuts, particularly around the figure’s legs and base. I just used the brush to remove the excess in these areas, as well as a few minor air bubbles.

The figure was left to dry overnight, the base black edged (I do this to all my figures, I forget why I started) and the lot varnished with Moana Matt varnish. The ‘All in One’ is a varnish too of course, and it really seals the figure very nicely once it’s dry. However it’s satin and not matt, so the Moana was just used to cut the shine down on the final figure.

Initially I wasn’t that impressed with the results, but now it’s been a few days the effect is starting to grow on me. The stain has really worked well on the metal surfaces like the weapon blades and plates on the Orc’s armor, as well as treating the wood and leather toned surfaces too. It was primarily the skin and base I didn’t like originally, but for the amount of painting effort involved I can live with them. I think my results are comparable to the Army Painter Quick Shade product too, at around half the cost - although their figures are better photographed.

Now I just have to factory line a handful more Orcs to finish a rank and see how they shape up. I notice the Army Painter figures have been base coated with fairly light tones. In fact it looks like they’ve mostly been left primed before dipping! This is something I’ll try on a few figures I think since it will obviously cut down the painting time a lot. Finally I have to say thanks to Dustan for his Wattyl suggestions and other dipping tips, and to Monty for directing us all to the Army Painter system.

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- An Orc Hero on foot as the General,
- 24 Orcs with double hand-weapons,
- Two units of 5 Goblin Wolf Riders with spears,
- And an Orcish Boar Chariot with two riders.

That lot comes to around 500 points depending on whether you use the 6th or 7th Edition Orc and Goblin army book. To be honest looking at the two I don’t see a lot of difference force wise either, so it’s kind of hard to tell why Games Workshop bothered with the latest Orc army book.

I doubt these figures will see any paint in the near future. I’ve just assembled them so I can play them ‘in the gray’ with friends. I am mildly tempted to try speed painting the rank and file, which isn’t an art I’ve mastered as I typically take days to paint a since 28mm figure. I also white prime rather than black, which complicates things too. I’m considering trying a couple of green ink washes for Orc and Goblin flesh and simply scorched brown basing the rest of each figure and painting a coat or two over that. Basically that would give me ‘brown lining’ which is how I paint 15mm figures where it works reasonably well.

Anybody got any tips for speed painting white primed Orcs and Goblins?

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The lady on the left is from Copplestone Castings and the Wehrmacht sentry is from Artizan Designs. That lantern jawed German has been kicking around my paint station for no less than two years, since I last got some Pulp painting done. So it’s a relief to finally have him packed away in the gaming cupboard.

The irony is that having painted some Pulp figures, Daniel and his flatmate, in a fit of madness, dropped $300nz each on Warhammer Fantasy figures. So it seems we may be playing some Border Patrol in the near future! Might be time to assemble some of the Orcs I bought in 2006. Funny how this stuff goes in cycles isn’t it?

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I’ve converted the Tempus Fugit scenario into a small PDF you can download. The scenario is designed for four to six players, each with a couple of figures. It’s pretty straight forward except there’s a hidden aspect, so players don’t know who else is a friend or foe. This resulted in some hilarity in the play through, with my own villain and his sidekick getting ruthlessly and repeatedly shot by other villains on the table. I guess there’s no honour amoungst power crazed madmen?

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A group favourite from Adam’s collection is Race for the Galaxy, which as the title suggests is a race to build the highest scoring galactic civilisation. Also like a typical race, there’s no interaction between the competitors. It does however have an interesting mechanic where players decide which phases of a turn occur in any given turn, so a canny player can sort of parasitically benefit from the other player’s choices. This is a card game you can finish in under an hour, even with four to five players and each game is varied enough that we’ve gone weeks just playing Race.

Andrew has dragged out Clans once, which I found to be an enjoyable game of diminishing resources and escalating scoring with a single core mechanic that sort of feels like crystals forming in a solution. Possibly it’s a little too simple though as we haven’t replayed in the three months I’ve worked so far, although I’d happily try it again. It plays quickly too so you can get a couple of games in over an hour.

Zombie Fluxx is a card game that Adam bought in for comparison after I purchased a copy of Munchkin from Board-Games.co.nz. Having played Zombie Fluxx over a lunchtime this week I have to say I wish I’d purchased it instead of Munchkin! It has the same kind of ‘beer and pretzels’ feel of Munchkin, plays in a similar fast and furious fashion, and has the same large element of luck but the Fluxx mechanic of playing cards to change the game rules (including the victory conditions) is just a little deeper and more interesting than Munchkin. Plus you know, it’s got a Zombie theme, which actually works quite well with the rather abstract game.

In closing I’m also surprised to find how relaxing a midday board game is. I work in IT as a software enginner, which while not a physically draining job, certainly can be a mentally tiring one. Board and card games are an intellectual exercise too of course, but they’re also social affairs. Something about a game over lunch keeps my mind sharp enough to head back into the code in the afternoon, but is sufficiently different to refresh me as well. Possibly it’s the invigorating smack talk that goes on during the games. If you have the means I’d seriously recommend getting a gaming group together at your office.

I’m also interested to hear any recommendations for interesting board or card games that can be played with three to five people in around an hour. Any suggestions dear visitors?

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